This site requires JavaScript. To ensure you can use all the features please enable it.

We use cookies on this website.
By continuing to use this site without changing your cookie settings,
you agree that you are happy to accept our privacy policy
and for us to access our cookies on your device.

MASTERY OF THE SEA [Main Title]

Description: An early morale booster which sets out to demonstrate that Britain is not beleaguered, her Navy is still supreme, her merchant shipping is still relatively unimpaired and the convoy system (only 1 ship in 680 allegedly lost in convoys) is an effective protection against the German navy - "an upstart with notoriously bad sea manners", further characterised as being most successful with those weapons requiring least seamanship, and no respecter of neutrality. British submarines, by contrast, attack warships not merchantmen. Despite the use of models, the explanation of convoy procedures is credible until the film seeks to demonstrate how a bomber attack is beaten off - German aircraft are spotted by a reconnaissance plane, "action stations" are called, and Swordfish take off from a nearby carrier to assist... Unfortunately, most of the footage of German planes is from BAPTISM OF FIRE (including, improbably, a Henschel Hs 126 spotter plane), while the close-ups of Swordfish pilots apparently come from a feature film.